S. Jeff Horton

I have loved the water since I was just a kid. I have also been fascinated with wooden boats since I saw my first Chris Craft runabout when I was probably 9 years old.

Woodworking and wooden boat have always fascinated me. My first wood boat was a 1963 Chris Craft Sea Skiff which I rebuilt after a high wind blew it into the dock and tore up one corner. I built my first boat, a DK-13 kayak shortly after that. When I sold my lake house to a friend of mine, I gave him the kayak. I also sold my Sail Boat with the plan of building another once we moved and my new shop was finished.

I decided to build another kayak first. The sailboat build would be a big project and a kayak would give me a chance to get out on the water while I worked on the sailboat. The search for the 'perfect' kayak lead me to trying to design one myself since I couldn’t find what I wanted.

Next I discovered Skin on Frame boats and read everything I could find about them. I designed and built one, then another and other. Suddenly I realized there is a lot of dust on the sailboat plans and a lot of kayaks in my shop.